Auchenstroan Coloured Ryelands

This is not the the first story about drystane dykes and probably won’t be the last. Most of the ground here is soft and so, over time, the dykes subside. Given a dry stone dyke is essentially two walls leaning against each other, if one side sinks faster than the other, then all those stones […]

This summer’s been a bit funny weatherwise, after a hot and dry May and June (so dry that we ran out of water at one point), the heavens opened and it’s been dreich ever since.  One thing is certain though, rain or shine there are always plenty of flies buzzing around. This part of Galloway […]

A couple of weeks ago as I was cleaning out the field shelter, the sheep milling about me ‘helping’, I happened to notice Vi had some discharge around her nose. A clear nasal discharge is usually nothing to worry about, but Vi’s was definitely on the green side.  Oh, I immediately thought, Pneumonia?  Botfly?  An […]

We have a large area for growing veggies; six rectangles of about 2 x 4 metres.  We like to grow a mixture of root and leaf crops, tomatoes and herbs.  Growing our own is really satisfying and it tastes delicious too.  Plus our nearest supermarket is an hour away so it’s nice and convenient. Our […]

Since last week’s story about shearing, we still had one sheep left to shear – sweet Vera.  Vera has photo-sensitive skin and doesn’t respond well to the close shave given by electric blades.  Last year I hand-clipped her and she had a much more comfortable summer as a result.  Giving Vera a haircut is now […]

Last Saturday I was just back from walking the dogs and was sitting down for a cuppa when the phone rang.  It was 7am so I grabbed it hoping it would be Guy our shearer.  Happily it was, he said he’d be with us at 9.30 and to bring the sheep down and into the […]

Progress with the hen “cuddle training” since my last blog story has been a slow.  Mainly because I have been super busy holding the fort.  Adrian took a full-time job at the start of the year which means that I’m juggling more plates on the smallholding.  The hen cuddle training has continued but not as […]

Last year we came to the realisation that our hens had gone a little too feral for our liking.  This might not seem to be a problem on the surface of it, indeed if asked, the hens would probably say they had a lovely time with their wild camping expeditions and minimal interference from two […]

For the past few months we’ve been bringing our friendly cockerel Cherokee into the kitchen to perform a minor procedure on his feet. It all started one day last summer when we noticed him looking a bit down.  On inspection, we discovered a nodule on each foot between his toes. We suspected these might be […]

Our chicks who hatched last summer have grown into big, beautiful hens.  It sounds cliche, but it’s hard to imagine they were once inside eggs. When we collected our box of fertile eggs from a local farm last May we were told they were “Black Orpingtons”.  I confess, we’re not too clued up on hen […]

Over the weekend while Adrian has been busy adding a shrubbery to the hen run, my job has been to get the veggie patch ready for planting.  Spring is nearly upon us and our seeds are sitting in their little packets on the kitchen shelf just bursting to get out and transform themselves into plants.  […]

There’s a job we should probably do every year but it usually ends up being every two years or even every three or dare I admit it, every four.  This is because it’s not the most exciting of jobs and nor is it necessarily an urgent job.  It’s one of those jobs that you can […]